World News
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice removes the head of the federal police and eleven of its directors offer to resign
By Staff Writer | 9 September 2026
Justice Andre Mendonca ruled that the force's director-general and intelligence chief headed an operation that produced at least six intelligence reports on him between 3 and 31 August. The acting chief said the force will not be shaken. The dispute reaches into the Banco Master inquiry, a clash between two justices, and an election next month.
A justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court removed the head of the country's federal police on Tuesday. Andre Mendonca, who leads the court's inquiry into the collapse of Banco Master, ordered the director-general, Andrei Rodrigues, and the force's intelligence director, Leandro Almada, off their posts, the latter as a precautionary measure. He was acting on a request from the Novo party. The state news agency reported that the ruling cites an official letter signed by Mr Rodrigues recording that at least six intelligence reports with the justice as their subject were received by the director-general between 3 and 31 August 2026, which the justice described as more than 30 days of monitoring of a justice of the country's highest court by the federal police, unlawful in itself and enough on its own to show the gravity of the situation.
The trigger was the publication last week, by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of a federal police report suggesting that the Banco Master inquiry was being directed against Mr Mendonca's political opponents. Mr Mendonca's ruling describes that document as unsigned, without letterhead or any mark that would allow its authorship or date to be checked, and notes that the report itself says its inferences have no evidential value and would not justify formal measures, while recommending that the monitoring continue. He wrote that the episode required immediate steps to stop the prerogatives of the judiciary, of public advocacy and of police work themselves being trampled.
The force's answer
The federal police's executive director, William Marcel Murad, who becomes acting director-general, said in a statement that Mr Rodrigues had the force's full confidence and that its agents would not be shaken by attacks. Eleven federal police directors then said in a joint statement that they had offered their resignations to Mr Murad, who will decide whether to accept them, and that the accusations had no ground and challenged the record, credibility and institutional commitment of the two men removed.
have no ground, and challenge the history, the credibility and the institutional commitment
Joint statement by eleven directors of Brazil's federal police, 8 September 2026
The government had not said by the end of Tuesday whether it would appeal. Mr Rodrigues was nominated by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Mr Mendonca was appointed to the court by the former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Two justices and one bank
Mr Mendonca leads two inquiries with political weight: the Banco Master collapse, which has reached several opposition figures, and alleged frauds in the pension system, which has raised questions about one of the President's sons. Last week he unsealed federal police documents showing that the bank's owner, Daniel Vorcaro, had frequently sought legal advice from Mr de Moraes before his arrest. Mr de Moraes has denied wrongdoing; his wife's firm provided legal services to the bank under a contract of 130 million reais, about 25 million dollars. Brazilian media reported last week that Mr Mendonca was seeking Mr de Moraes's suspension from the court while it decides whether he should be investigated, and Mr de Moraes in turn wrote in another ruling that Mr Mendonca should be investigated by the court and potentially impeached by the Senate for interviewing Mr Vorcaro in August without police or prosecutors present. Mr de Moraes, who sentenced Mr Bolsonaro to prison last year, has not commented publicly since the documents were unsealed.
On Monday, Brazil's Independence Day, tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition candidate, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, filled Sao Paulo's main avenue, many calling for Mr de Moraes to go and some carrying an inflatable figure of Mr Mendonca. The election is in October. President Lula is seeking another term against Mr Bolsonaro, whose father is serving a 27-year sentence at home for an attempted coup.
The bank at the centre of this collapsed; the inquiry into it is now an inquiry into who investigates whom. A justice has removed the police chief for watching him, the police say the chief was doing his job, and a second justice's own dealings with the bank's owner are the reason the first justice thinks he was being watched. Weeks from polling day, the institution that will be asked to settle the election's disputes is settling its own.